TAP Portugal

Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, SGPS, S.A., known to the public as TAP Portugal and commonly known as TAP, is the national airline of Portugal. TAP Portugal is 100 % state owened and has its head office in Building 25 on the grounds of Portela Airport in Santa Maria dos Olivais, Lisbon,^[2][3] and has been a member of the Star Alliance since 14 March 2005, the same day on which the company celebrated its 60th anniversary. Its hub in Lisbon is a key European gateway at the crossroads of Africa, South America and North America. Privatization of the airline will be under way in 2012 as part of Portugal's €78 billion bailout agreed by the EU and the IMF.^[4]

TAP's route network comprises 80 destinations in 36 countries worldwide. TAP operates almost 2,000 weekly flights with a fleet of 55 Airbus aircraft, and 16 further aircraft servicing regional subsidiary carrier Portugalia.

TAP originally meant Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (Portuguese Air Transportations). This was dropped in 1979 when the company changed its name to TAP Air Portugal, then dropped again to its current operational name, TAP Portugal.

Global Traveler Magazine named TAP Portugal 'Best Airline in Europe' for the year 2011.^[5][6]

History

The airline was founded on 14 March 1945 and began commercial services on 19 September 1946,^[7] from Lisbon to Madrid with a Douglas DC-3 under the name Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP). On 31 December that year, TAP began its Linha Aérea Imperial, a twelve-stop colonial service including Luanda, Angola and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique.

In 1947, domestic services commenced from Lisbon to Porto as well as from São Tomé to London. Four Douglas DC-4 Skymasters were bought in 1947, remaining in service until 1960. These were used on the routes to Africa and to major European destinations including London. TAP began service to Tangier and Casablanca in 1949. In 1953, the airline became a private company.

The one-millionth passenger flew on TAP on 19 June 1964, 18 years after the airline began operations. In 1969, service to New York via Santa Maria Island in the Azores began. Boston was added to the New York service the following year. In 1975, TAP was nationalised, becoming a state-owned corporation (Empresa Pública) and changing its name to TAP Air Portugal in March 1979.

TAP purchased Boeing 747s during the 1970s, replacing their Boeing 707s; but they were eventually sold due to lack of demand. They were replaced by Lockheed TriStars and Airbus A310s on long-haul routes. In 1985 TAP established its charter subsidiary Air Atlantis. By the late 1990s, TAP had expanded its fleet by selling its older Boeing 727s and Boeing 737s, and had replaced them with Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. The TriStars were sold to Air Luxor and were replaced by Airbus A340s giving TAP an Airbus-only fleet.

In 1989, the service to Newark, New Jersey was introduced and in 1991, the service to Berlin. Also in 1989, TAP became a publicly-traded company (Sociedade Anónima). In 1993, TAP began flying to Tel Aviv. In 1994, TAP signed for a code sharing arrangement with Delta Air Lines for North Atlantic service. This agreement ended in 2005.

1996 saw the introduction of service to Boston via Terceira Island in the Azores, the inauguration of service to Macau and the launch of TAP's Website. In 1997, service began to Punta Cana and Bangkok. Flights to Bangkok and Macau were discontinued in 1998.

In 2005, TAP Portugal became the 16th member of Star Alliance. TAP Air Portugal was re-branded as TAP Portugal in February 2005, employing 9,750 staff. TAP also ended its code-sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines and began a new agreement with United Airlines, as part of its membership in the Star Alliance. Under this agreement United's code (UA) is placed on TAP Portugal's transatlantic flights and some African flights, and TAP Portugal's code (TP) is placed on United flights.

In 2006, TAP Portugal signed a deal with Espírito Santo International for the acquisition of 99.81 per cent of the Portuguese regional airline Portugália. Furthermore it started a code-sharing agreement with US Airways on all routes between Portugal and the United States with connecting services out of Newark and Philadelphia.

In 2007 TAP Portugal was awarded by NATO as the Best Engine/Aircraft Source of Repair for the NATO AWACS Maintenance Program and has been distinguished with the highest maintenance and overhaul practice awards from Airbus Industries in 1996, 2000, 2003, and 2005, being certified for full aircraft, engine and component maintenance and overhaul by the FAA, EASA, and several other important certification entities and aircraft manufacturers (Airbus, Boeing and Embraer). ^[8] TAP Portugal has complete maintenance and overhaul bases in Portugal (Lisbon) and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre), and has specialized line maintenance stations in three continents: 4 in Portugal, 8 in Brazil, and 1 in Angola.^[9] It started scheduled flights to Moscow, Warsaw and Helsinki, in June 2009.^[10]

As of 2010 TAP Portugal has introduced new routes to Africa, Marrakesh & Algiers. The launch of these new routes highlights TAP's reinforcement of its growth strategy for Africa, which is the only segment in the network where the airline has continually expanded since 2001, going from 236,000 passengers to 541,000 passengers, an increase of more than 129%. With a 6.4% rise in 2009. New long range routes have already been announced in 2011, namely Miami in USA and Porto Alegre in Brazil.

In 2010 TAP Portugal was awarded the "World's Best Airline Award" by British Condé Nast Travel magazine, after being rated for its excellence in previous years,^[11] and was rated as the "Best Airline to South America" by the World Travel Awards in 2009 and 2010, with nominations for "Europe's Leading Airline" and "Europe's Leading Business Class" in 2007, 2009 and 2010.^[12] TAP Portugal has also consistently achieved high ranks and various awards from specialized air travel publications such as Skytrax and Publituris due to the company's excellence in service and performance.^[13]

According to the JACDEC Airliner Safety Report released in January 2011, TAP Portugal was rated Western Europe's safest airline and tied for fourth worldwide with three other airlines (Qantas, Air New Zealand, and Finnair). The JADEC report rates TAP Portugal well above any of its competitors in its prime geographic operating areas: Europe, Atlantic Islands, Africa, North America and South America.^[14]

Subsidiaries

TAP's subsidiaries are:

Destinations

TAP Portugal serves 80 destinations in 36 countries across Europe, Africa, North America and South America. Some domestic, European and African destinations are operated by Portugalia Airlines or PGA Express.

In 2011, more destinations were added to TAP network, with direct flights from its Lisbon hub to Accra, Athens, Bamako, Bordeaux, Dubrovnik, Düsseldorf, Manchester, Miami, Porto Alegre, São Vicente and Vienna, expanding its presence in Africa and adding its second destination in North America.

Expansion in the intercontinental route network has been strained by the lack of space experienced at Lisbon's Portela International Airport combined with lack of adequate long-haul aircraft and no recent re-capitalisations (the last of which took place nearly 10 years ago by the Portuguese government).

With the Portuguese government, as well as the current TAP CEO Fernando Pinto proposing an urgent privatisation of the airline as soon as the beginning of next year, this could lead to more aircraft being leased or bought to bolster TAP Portugal's profitable long-haul operations and start new routes.

Partnerships

Commercial

Codeshare agreements

TAP has codeshare agreements with several carriers, * indicates fellow Star Alliance partners.

Technology

After taking a decision to outsource its Passenger Service System in 2008, TAP migrated its reservation and inventory systems to the Altéa system managed by Amadeus. Prior to the migration to Altéa TAP was using a system derived from Delta Air Lines called Tapmatic and had been in use since 1972.

TAP Cargo

TAP Cargo has five all-cargo routes. Besides these routes, TAP Cargo uses all TAP Portugal flights. These are:

• London Heathrow Airport operated by European Air Transport with a Boeing 757
• Frankfurt Airport operated by MNG Airlines with an Airbus A300
• Cologne Bonn Airport operated by MNG Airlines with an Airbus A300
• Brussels Airport operated by Royal Jordanian with an Airbus A310
• Dakar Airport

TAP Cargo also operates Lisbon-Luanda all-cargo non-regular flights, in an Avient Aviation DC-10F, a Girjet 747-200F, and other leased aircraft.

On board

The aircraft are divided into a two-class cabin - executive (tap executive) and economy classes (tap plus, tap classic, tap basic and tap discount).

On the medium-haul fleet of Airbus A319, Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircraft, both cabins feature leather seats with an in-flight entertainment (IFE) system of several LCD screens that are extended from the cabin ceiling. The tap|executive class offers better privacy than Economy and a gourmet meal.

On the long-haul fleet of Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 aircraft, the cabin is divided into a two-class layout. The economy class of the Airbus A330 is equipped with individual LCDs with touchscreen and a complete IFE on new aircraft, while the older ones feature an average IFE and less-updated individual screens.

In tap|executive class, seats are capable of turning into lie-flat beds. New Airbus A330 aircraft are also fitted with extra functions.

TAP's inflight magazine is named 'UP' and is available both on board, and as a freely downloadable application for Apple's iPad.^[15]

Fleet

The TAP Portugal fleet, as of October 2011, consists of the following aircraft (excluding Portugalia's fleet):^[16][17][18]

The Portugalia fleet, as of October 2011, consists of the following aircraft

Incidents and accidents

• TAP Portugal Flight 425 (Madeira Airport 1977), the only accident with fatalities.

Flight 425 was a flight to Madeira Airport from Brussels via Lisbon operated by TAP Portugal with a Boeing 727 that crashed on 19 November 1977 at Funchal Airport after the landing on the runway 24. The plane was trying to land in heavy rain and after two unsuccessful attempts the captain decided to try another time. They touched down too late and overran the runway which, at the time, was only 1600 metres long. The plane crashed on the beach; splitting in two pieces and bursting into flames. Of the 164 people aboard, 131 were killed and 33 survived. It is the deadliest aeroplane accident in Portugal.

The crash prompted officials to explore ways of extending the short runway. Because of the height of the runway relative to the beach below, an extension was very difficult and too expensive to perform. A 200m extension was built between 1983 and 1986. Fourteen years later, the runway was extended again. Following the 2000 extension, the runway measured 2781m (9,124 feet) long and was capable of handling wide body commercial jets such as the Boeing 747 or the Airbus A340.

References

External links

• Official website
• TAP Corporate
• TAP Victoria
• Up Magazine